I scouted what seems like every square inch of the northern Bitterroot yesterday without seeing a single volunteer, save the one road-killed skunk I swerved to avoid.

No chucks, gophers, badgers, skunks (save one) - nada. Even the yotes think I talk funny. What kind of luck is anyone else nearby having?

I sat in several locations all over a neighbor's ranch in the middle of lambing/calving and all those other spring rituals - and there wasn't even a hawk to be seen! Zip. Nichts.

Redial

I saw about a dozen gophers yesterday here on the ranch the first I have seen here at about 5600ft.I saw a badger last thursday.It was -39 here a week ago so I was surprised to see the gophers.Bozeman has gophers running everywhere you look but the elevation is much lower there.w/regards